Features My ’51 Packard old school kustom, 12 years of building

I'm always impressed by the quan***y and quality of US hot rods and customs at shows in other countries. Your man Sampo had to do a m***ive amount of work to that car.

 

Amen Stuart.

 

Cool! Thank you HAMB for adding this thread on the main page!

 

The kustom build continued. Lot of work during the years. After chopping the roof, a new windshield was done.

The decklid was quite OK and Sampo made a choice to keep it as it was. I think it's a good idea and the lid still remains as is and it's cool to see the condition what it was originally. Taillights came from a Packard -50 and they were frenched in the panel. The original rear bumber was rechromed and fitted in the channeled body.

 

Rear part of the car started to look pretty good. the catwalk panel between decklid and rear window got lengthened while the top was chopped and the rear window got sunken inside the body.

Packard 1950 taillights really make the difference! If you Google Packard 1951 and Packard 1950 you can easily see that they are totally different type of cars. It is amazing how well the different taillights do fit in this car. Lot of work done there.

 

Tonight we had a local cruising night. Took the car out for a spin and drove around town here and there. No more snow here after a long winter!

 

Beautiful work done on the Packard... by comparison, looks better than original. Proportions and styling are all spot on!

 

The new lines started to look good. The lowered stance was created by dropping the body on the frame. Chopped top, two-door mod with the hardtop conversion and all other big and small modifications were done with a great eye of an Industrial Designer by trade.

Interior was build by using a Ford Thunderbird seats which were found locally for a cheap price. However the matching rear seat Sampo had to find and get shipped from the US. The center console was fabricated and it hires the hoses and manual valves for the air suspension. In the center of the rear seat Sampo fabricated an aluminium interior light which is movable.

 

That back seat fits like it was intended...

 

And just like that, after years of work the first evolution was ready for the testdrive and the first show. Such a major milestone that was!


After the first show also new white wall tires were added. In this first evolution the front was still pretty much original even though the car was a "full kustom" other than that.

 

Thank you for sharing your build history It was kool to see what they started with and applaud the builder for saving the car. Takes a lot of talent to create a kustom with all of the right body mods. Very Kool!

 

I love it! I had a mild custom '55 Packard 2 door hardtop driver a few years ago. They're different enough that with the emblems shaved, no one was sure what it was. I really like the workmanship that went into the 2 door conversion and hardtop on this car, and lots of rust repair too, was a big job but appears to be very well done.

 

True. Stunning work really. It's incredible how much this car has been improved from stock.

Indeed, a gift. Just the front end itself is a revelation. Not sure how you go from this to that, but the shape of the opening, the use of the trim pieces and the carryover of the secondary part of the original grill is sublime.

 

Thank you for the comments. After the first evolution the build journey continues. Really nice craftmanship was required for functional windows. With a hardtop roof and no B-pillar all of these mechanisms needed lot of work. I think they came out really nice and they work quite well considering they are all hand-made. There is a "Hirohata style" curved trim in between and the rear side gl*** slides a little bit backwards before moving down when you roll the windows down.

 

The next summer the car made it's premiere and it got driven alot. Sampo even won some trophies in the shows! One being a "The worst ashamed car" in the museum car collectors' show. That was a great honor for a kustom guy.

The Packard was brought back to life!!

 

Thanks so much for sharing the progression of this kool kustom. It is obvious that the builder had an eye for how the car should flow and makes sense that he is an industrial designer. I work close with a guy at work that does that as well. He is one of my go-to guys for feedback when designing the look of stuff.

 

The next evolution for this kustom started with the roof paint. Also a Chevrolet ’53 front bumber was added with some grill center bar mods. In this new look the car stayed for a while and it was time to enjoy it. Even a magazine coverage was done with the a center pages poster.

 

Nice work. I dig the colorway you chose for the top.

 

It's cool that these are Packard taillights from a different year. When I first looked at them, I thought they were from a shoebox Ford, and was thinking they look better on this car than a Ford.

 

In this form the Packard saw the road pretty hard, it was driven everywhere. The "new" original register plates were received and installed in the car after 50 years. Also some cool photoshoots were done.

 

Old kustoms never die and the next change for this car was the front. Old zinc pressure molded grill had bad cracks and it was pitted badly. The grill frame was beyond restoration. So the front end got kustomized. A new insert was built by using the original pieces, the surroundings was built by using original door trims, Cad 59 parking lights were added, and the headlights were frenched by using Mercury aftermarket rings. Chevrolet 53 bumber was added. Sampo also tried different versions of the grill, as you can see in the last picture.

 

I became a new caretaker for the car when Sampo "finished" it and he decided to have something else for a change after 12 long years of building. I haven't done much for the car yet, but I have tried to keep it in pristine condition. I p***ed the inspection on a first trial with no remarks and now I have two years before the next inspection. I have enjoyed the car alot. I rented a warm and guarded spot for the winter. Added the spotlights and made a trunk carpet out of a Mexican blanket. Took it to the show and wanted to show the history, which was indeed very interesting for the show quests.

This was the end of this project diary so far, hope you have enjoyed. I wanted to share this whole journey and I feel that the fabrication of this cool car deserved to be do***ented and shared.

 

how cool that even in finland people used El Caminos for work trucks... say, how did that end up over there, i thought finland stopped importing new american cars in the 70s?

 

No they never stopped importing them. They have always been popular here. I mean there was maybe some hiccup after the energy crisis but they kept them coming.

 

That is doing the near impossible and doing it quite well. Taking a less than interesting sedan and making a nifty custom out of it. Well done.

 

I've enjoyed reading your build thread. The evolution is interesting and I love the final version with the front end properly sorted. Thanks for taking the time to post this great custom.

 

I changed the grill a bit. Copied the design from a traditional kustom grill of a Pontiac ’54. I think it looks good.

 

I love the build. I am more race car oriented but I do love the way that it looks from the rear. Proportions are spot on.

 

Sampo is now building a cool kustom truck. We had a great opportunity to park both cars side by side in the cruising.

 

Your Packard is fantastic but I am not sure about the Pick-up, a bit too much IMHO.